1 Kings 6:9

6:1-10 The temple is called the house of the Lord, because it was directed and modelled by him, and was to be employed in his service. This gave it the beauty of holiness, that it was the house of the Lord, which was far beyond all other beauties. It was to be the temple of the God of peace, therefore no iron tool must be heard; quietness and silence suit and help religious exercises. God's work should be done with much care and little noise. Clamour and violence often hinder, but never further the work of God. Thus the kingdom of God in the heart of man grows up in silence, Mr 5:27.

So he built the house, and finished it,.... The body of it, the walls of the holy and most holy place, with the chambers on the sides of them, and the porch at the end that led into them: and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar; with hollow boards, as the Targum, which formed an arch ceiling to it, and made it look very grand and beautiful; and then over them were laid beams and planks of cedar, not properly as a flat roof to it, but rather as a flooring for other buildings; for upon this, as in 1 Kings 6:10, there were chambers built.

In that night did God appear unto Solomon,.... From hence to the end of 2 Chronicles 1:12 it is the same with 1 Kings 3:5 . See Gill on 1 Kings 3:5 , 1 Kings 3:6 , 1 Kings 3:7 , 1 Kings 3:8 , 1 Kings 3:9 , 1 Kings 3:10 , 1 Kings 3:11 , 1 Kings 3:12 , 1 Kings 3:13 , 1 Kings 3:14 , 1 Kings 3:15

1 Kings 6:9-10 . So he built the house, and finished it — That is, the walls of the house. And then he built chambers — There is nothing in the Hebrew for the word then, which being omitted, the sense is, that he here gives an account of the height of these chambers, as, 1 Kings 6:6 , he did of the breadth. But it is very briefly; and we are to understand that those below, and those in the middle, and those above, were all of an equal height, namely, five cubits. So they were fifteen cubits in all, which was five less than the height of the house, for that was twenty cubits; otherwise there would have been no room for the windows, which, it is probable, were above all these chambers, in the top of the house.

(9) And covered —that is, roofed the house with a roof of cedar beams and boarding thereon. Some have supposed that he “covered” the outside walls with cedar, so that the whole should still look like a wooden tabernacle; but this is not necessarily implied, and is in itself unlikely.

9 . So he built the house ] i.e. The Temple building. The next verse speaks of the enclosing framework of chambers. What was now finished was the portion for divine service. and covered the house ] i.e. Made the roof for it. On this roof, see Fergusson, Temples of the Jews , pp. 19 seqq., where the author shews that the covering of the Tabernacle was made with a ridge and sloped to both sides, and that the cedar beams and boards (R.V. planks ) spoken of in this verse were to imitate, as nearly as could be done in wood, the Tabernacle roof. Mr Fergusson has suggested (p. 28) that there were most probably pillars inside the Temple to support the beams of the roof. ‘No cedar beams that were available could be laid across an opening 30 feet free without sagging to an unpleasant extent.’

He built the house, and finished it, to wit, the bulk and the body of the house. Covered the house, or, the house i.e. the top of the house, for the like is said of the sides and bottom, 1 Kings 6:15 , even the beams and boards, ( or, the vault-beams and the ceilings; the arched beams and boards wherewith the top of the house was covered, which was made of other wood, which was more pliable than cedar, and would better endure bowing and bending,) with cedars.

Verse 9. - So he built the house and finished it [ i.e. , the exterior (see on ver. 14)] and covered [ i.e. , roofed, same word Deuteronomy 33:21 ; Jeremiah 22:14 ; Haggai 1:4 . There is no reference to the lining of cedar which was applied to the interior. That is described in ver. 15] the house with beams and boards [Heb. rows, ranks. The same word is used of soldiers 2 Kings 11:8, 15 ] of cedar. [It has been universally held till quite lately that the roof was either vaulted (Thenius) or flat (Bahr, Keil). But Mr. Fergussen has alleged some reasons for believing that it was a span or gable roof. It is true that Oriental buildings almost invariably have externally flat(internally arched) roofs. In Palestine, because of the scarcity of timber, no other form is possible. But the temple, as we have seen, was constructed after the model of the tabernacle, and the latter, as the name almost implies, and as necessity would require, had a ridged roof (see Dict. Bib. 3 p. 1453). It does not necessarily follow, however, as Fergusson assumes, that the temple followed the tabernacle in this respect. It is obvious that when a " house was built unto the name of the Lord," the form of the tent might be abandoned as inappropriate. It is true that this shape would be consecrated to them by many centuries of use, but it is also possible that in a house it would strike them as altogether bizarre. ] 1 Kings 6:9

In 1 Kings 6:9 and 1 Kings 6:10 the description of the exterior of the temple building is brought to a close. "So he built the house, and finished it, and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar." ויּספּן is not to be understood as relating to the internal panelling of the temple-house, for this is spoken of first in the section which follows ( 1 Kings 6:15 ), but to the roofing; ספן means to conceal ( Deuteronomy 33:21 ) and cover in all the other passages, even in Haggai 1:4 and Jeremiah 22:14 , where ספוּן is generally, though incorrectly, translated "panelled." As a verb signifying clothing, it is construed with the accusative. גּבים does not mean boards, but beams, though not "an arched covering" (Thenius), because beams cut in the form of an arch would have been too weak in the middle, nor yet rafters (Bttcher), because the roofs of oriental buildings are flat. בּארזים שׂדרת, "rows, i.e., tablets (consisting) of cedars," i.e., cedar tablets, which were inserted in rows between the beams. This cedar-work was certainly provided with a strong covering to protect the roof and the building itself against rain; and at the sides it had no doubt a parapet, as in the case of dwelling-houses ( Deuteronomy 22:8 ).